Justin Courtney Pierre

The day has finally arrived. Our new album “The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World” is out NOW. We really poured ourselves into this one. Several years and a thousand stories led us here; and we’re so happy to have made it through the muck, despite the sleepless nights, the scrapes and scars, and the incredible losses we’ve all endured. Luckily, much like the mighty phoenix born from the ashes of what came before, we were able to rebuild. We were able to lean on one another, as well as the people that we love and trust, and made something that we are all very proud of. We may have made this one for us, but the “us” isn’t limited to just the band. It’s for anyone and everyone who’s been a part of our story. You know who the fuck you are. Produced, Engineered and Mixed By @rosecrud Additional Engineering by @jacobcarlsonaudio Particle Physics Music Video Starring: Motion City Soundtrack  @PatrickStump Horse Head Dancer - @alaric.the.great   Gas Mask Dancer - @quitethelatvian Fox Head Dancer - @lily___marie Director, Editor, and Animator - @snwmnstr Producer - @joshuaallencain Director of Photography - @jessedcain   Chief Lighting Technician - @whisperedtherabbit Playback - @jacobcarlsonaudio   Assistant Camera  - Blaine Redden  Production Assistant - @ciaracgme Seattle Unit - @robbienegrinphotography Choreography - @alaric.the.great Extras Manager - @archempathy   Assistant - @gallywas Hair and Makeup - Jamakah Webb

It only took me 600 years to track down @rosemailuthaofficial , but it happened. We were able to re-meet each other briefly for dinner during my stay over the last few days in LA. I first met Rose on the set of the film SNOW. She was starring in the film, and I was making coffee for the people working on the film. She probably doesn’t remember this, but she was always very kind to me the few times I was able to hang and chat, when I wasn’t running something to someone or setting up tables and chairs or making said coffee, etc… We have @erictretbar (writer/director of SNOW) to thank for bringing us back together. It’s crazy how we look EXACTLY the same now as we did then. CRAZY. Look for us this fall on NBC in the new (soon to be) hit detective series: Hard Charge & Tabasco!

My friend (and kid’s principal) María Graver is the first guest on a new podcast called “Voices From The Frontlines,” which drops Wednesday April 15th on KRSM Radio’s live stream and YouTube page. This woman is the real deal. She kept the kids safe during multiple instances of ICE “agents” rolling up to terrorize the children and the families in and around Aquila Elementary, two of which I was there for. Please get the word out, specially to folks in different parts of the country. This shit isn’t over. They’re still here. Granted a section of them have moved on to other cities. Prepare yourselves. Feel free to study the tactics of the people of Minnesota. I may have done very little compared to most, but you get a ton of people doing a little bit here and a little bit there, and eventually it adds up to a movement. Much love and respect to those on the frontlines and those on the Signal chats every single day, going where needed, recording information, and making noise. Again, please spread this information far and wide and watch the episode when it drops. Thank you.#aquila #aquilaelementary #stlouispark #motioncitysoundtrack #iceout

After 4 auditions, 3 callbacks, and 3 rejections, my daughter finally got cast in her first play at @stagestheatreco ! The play is called: The Right Thing To Do: The Joe Mauer Story. Yes, THAT Joe Mauer (for all you sports heads out there). And get this, it’s a musical as well! It’s based off a book, the profits of which (I’m talking 100% of the profits of each book sold) benefit two of Joe’s favorite nonprofits: @thumbsuphigh5k and @highlandfriendshipclub . I’m telling you, my kid comes home at 9:15pm every night after 3 hours of rehearsals, singing all the songs (even the ones she’s not performing during the play), and they are hilarious, heartbreaking, and even a bit heady at times (there is a line in one of the songs that references a specific type of punctuation that gets me every time). If you’re keeping score, my kid plays Young Becky. 41 shows is a lot of singing and dancing, not to mention a lot of absences from school, but she gets invigorated by this work. She does not come home all deflated and exhausted. Personally, I think a parent’s job is to follow their kid’s joy, and I am so happy that she found musical theater all on her own. Sure, her dad sings for a living, but add dancing and acting into the mix… Shit, I got nothing on her. Anyway, the point is, if you can get out to see a show, please do so. These kids are incredible, and really kick it in the ass 100% every time. I’ve never seen a play at Stages that I haven’t enjoyed. Check the bio for linkage. Get yourself some tickets. Yeah, in fact, treat yourself! You’re worth it, baby! You got this! I believe in you, fam! See you at every show that I’m physically around for. 🤘🏽 #stagestheatre #stagestheatrecompany #therightthingtodo #joeschmit #joemauer

My kid wanted photoshop, so I approved it for her on the condition that she learn it, and help me with my artwork for records and such in the future. I’m conflicted about AI for a myriad of reasons, although not because of replacing humans when it comes to making good art. I think AI is currently mediocre at best. What worries me is that the corporations that run things are going to start churning out mediocre products that people will start getting used to, and that will become the new normal, thus making great art harder to make. But that’s just my uneducated opinion. What I DO think it is useful for is a time saving shortcut to get to the good stuff. Only as it relates to art. The inability for most people to program it to NOT feed them what they want, in terms of information, is what scares me. It’s just going to further our distance from one another and feed into whatever biases and ideologies we already ascribe to, or lean toward. But I digresssssssssassysassysass. With respect to art, AI is just the next evolution of the search engine. Before search engines, we either had to physically go to the library, or if we had money, physically go to the living room and open up the Encyclopedia Britannica. I do hate what it is doing to the environment though. My hope is someone smart as fuck will come along and develop an environmentally sound way to do this shit, and then we can all move to that. My hope is that my daughter can start learning this new technology to aid her in her artistic endeavors. Within a year, she’s gonna be great at it because kids are sponges when it comes to information. So here is her first creation. I’ve included the original image (📷 @briandiazphoto ) for comparison.

🚨 Urgent mutual aid ask 🚨 Eviction notices go out March 5, and right now we have approximately 40 families that are at risk. We need to raise $50K in 48 hours to help keep people housed. If you can, please donate right now to the Gethsemane Community Care Fund (Lincoln Bye, Oh???) 👆🏽 Any amount helps and this fund is can serve households regardless of where they live. Pease ask 1–3 others to do the same or share. All donations are tax‑deductible and go directly to families in need. Thank you for showing up. We keep us safe. 💛 🎵 @limbeckband

I’ve been going to @motioncitysoundtrack shows since I was 16. I’ve always been drawn to the emo lyrics which make me feel like someone else understands my neurodivergent brain🥹 Music is healing and being able to bop with these guys live gives me the additional therapy I need. 🙏It’s also refreshing as hell to hear them speak up about what is happening in our world and not just care on as if it’s nothing’s going on.💜🌈💕🥳

I missed this article when it first came out. I did some research and it’s legit (do your own). I really wish some of those MAGA folk would wake up to the fact that some of them are going to eventually end up there if this shit keeps heading in the direction it’s heading. I wish they would realize that the government is literally doing the shit that they were fighting against. I don’t give a shit how y’all feel about this, but if any of them came over to the side of the resistance, I would welcome them with open arms, despite the vastness of our particular ideologies. There is, or at least could be, some overlap in our Venn diagrams. I am not hopeless, but I am overwhelmed by the daunting nature of the fight in front of us. I don’t know what good it is worrying about things the size and scope of giant detention centers being built, and the insane amount of money being funneled into it. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot I can think of to do in order to prevent that from happening. I’m sure there are people smarter than this idiot working on it. At least I hope so. For the rest of us, I think the thing we can do is to help the people in our neighborhoods who are being targeted, by bringing them food, and driving them places, and making noise, and recording everything, and interfering with 🧊 activity as much as possible. When you break it all down, we’re all just siblings on this planet. Much love to all of you fighting the good fight. ✊🏽♥️👊🏽

Thanks for helping us feel the love out here. We’ll see you tonight in Boston. And yes, Justin really does listen to audiobooks at 2.85x speed. 📹: @kellymason

I was going through my emails and deleting a bunch of old shit I no longer (never) needed, when I came across part of this email exchange between myself and @chboskys after @markhoppus and I met with him about potentially optioning his book: the perks of being a wallflower (shoutout out to Bruce McDonald for introducing me to this book way back when @motioncitysoundtrack was on Steven’s Untitled Rock Show). That night will be forever etched in my head, as Mr. Chbosky politely declined due to wanting to make it himself. He described several scenes to us that made it (verbatim) into the film he eventually made. We corresponded for a hot minute, and he was so kind to watch my first short film and say something nice about it. He also signed my copy of his book for my little sister @missapplejaks . I feel like it’s time to get back into the book optioning game, seeing as I read/listen to between 250-300 books a year. Anyone need a guy to recommend some rad art that would look good on the big (or small) screen? I know a guy. 📕

My buddy/bandmate @joshuaallencain and I recently were interviewed by @mayageorgi at @rollingstone about 🧊 in Minnesota. Much love and appreciation to them for reaching out to us, and giving us a larger platform to speak of our actual witnessed experiences with what’s going on. I put the Lincoln Bye Ohhhhhhh for ease of use. Please read, repost, comment, and spread the information far and wide. Then sign up for Signal and see how you can get involved either at home or from afar in the resistance movement if that’s something you feel compelled to do (I also put that Lynn Kin Bio). Last thing. And this is super important to me. If some asshole is celebrating the death of someone or anything of that nature in the comments, I will check for it and block them. However, if someone is just voicing a different opinion, or as happened a while back when I was told to stick to music and not politics, please don’t attack them. It makes YOU look like the assholes. Please, by all means, have a conversation if it’s important to you to do so. But there’s a difference between berating vs. engaging. When you try to shut someone down, nothing can be learned. And whenever a teachable moment arises, I think it’s important to have a conversation to find that common ground (if it exists), and when people are heard, they are more apt to listen, and seeds can be planted. 🤷‍♂️ I think I have a pretty good detector for vibe. This is merely a subtle criticism. I love you all as humans, just some more than others, because everything is a spectrum. 🤪✊🏽🌈☃️✈️🍔♥️👊🏽

Great article in @theatlantic by @adserwer (and fantastic 📸 by @jackisjackwas ). I was really moved upon reading this. The writer really captured the spirit of the people, the truth of what’s going on, and the things I’ve literally seen with my own eyes, even in the inner suburbs. I feel such love and respect for my fellow people of the north, and an overwhelming sense of validation as well. Not for me, but for the people really in the shit, day in and day out. Yeah, it took us long enough, but we’re here now. And that’s not nothing. Sorry to keep bringing that up, but I think it’s important that we be able to recognize that shit and sit in the uncomfortableness of it. Sure, I was listening to @publicenemy as a teenager, but was I HEARING them. No. We can do two things at once, reflect on our part in the perpetuation of the status quo (regardless of intent) and fight on behalf of our friends and neighbors (and ourselves). We in the game now, son. FUN FACT: I spent a lifetime thinking people were weird, always asking me, “what are you?” and “can I touch your hair?” Turns out it was just some good ol’ racism jr. 🤷‍♂️ I hold no ill will, I’m just relieved to know I wasn’t crazy for catching a certain vibe. I guess what I’m saying is, I hold space for it from both sides. WOW. Went off on a tangent there. Oh well. Before I end this, I have to acknowledge the wordage of Green Bean 🫛. HOLY SHIT. I am digging that energy. 🤣 OK. Better wrap this up so I can get ready for the show tonight. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks, Fam. Oh, shit! If anyone from any organizations in MN want to come on stage and talk during our set at @palacestpaul on February 14th, hit me up! Until then, keep doing what you’re doing. I’ll be joining you again in mid February. The fans of @motioncitysoundtrack are with you from afar. Much love. Stay safe. Be well. ✊🏽♥️